Research Experience

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada, Centre for Advanced Research in Experimental and Applied Linguistics, Language, Memory and Brain Lab, September 2023- November 2014. Worked under Professor Elisabet Service’s supervision on a project focused on “using a second language in simulated business situations.” This research involved the analysis and writing up of data collected from second language users of English in Canada (Chinese and Persian native speakers) and Slovenia.

Scientific Writer, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada, Centre for Advanced Research in Experimental and Applied Linguistics, Language, Memory and Brain Lab, October 2022- September 2023. Worked under Professor Elisabet Service’s supervision on a project on “following multi-step instructions.” This project involved writing up of data collected from English native speakers and second language users of English (Persians and Chinese).

Doctoral Researcher, University of Brighton, UK, October 2016- May 2021. I was the Principal Investigator in a project that investigated the various manifestations of iconicity in the visual-spatial modality. This project focused on the expression of iconicity in Ghanaian and Adamorobe sign languages. Conducted three empirical analyses (lexical, spatial and simultaneous constructions). Conducted a theoretical analysis of iconicity from a cognitive linguistics perspective. This work also involved fieldwork in Ghana, which took place in the summer of 2018.

Sign Linguist for a documentation project in Abuja and Owerri (Nigeria), sponsored by the University of New Mexico, US, and Save the Deaf and Endangered Languages Initiative (S-DELI), February 2016. This project focused on documenting Nigerian Sign Language used in schools. Working together with my collaborator, Dr. Emmanual Asonye, we have published the results of this project in journals and as book chapters.

MA student researcher, University of Bergen, Norway, Department of Linguistics August 2013- June 2015. Conducted a lab-based Psycholinguistics experiment. This work also involved fieldwork in Ghana which took place in the summer of 2014.